As a driving source of various types of industrial machines, an electric motor such as a servo motor is used. The expense of electricity consumed by a motor and an amplifier, which drives the motor, often constitutes the majority of the running costs of an industrial machine.
The electricity expense is incurred basically according to the power consumption amount, i.e., integral power. As the power consumption amount becomes smaller, the electricity expense becomes lower. In the case of checking a power consumption amount needed for operating a machine, it is conceivable to manufacture an actual machine, install a power meter in the machine in addition to mounting a motor, an amplifier, and other devices thereto, and then measure the actual power consumed to operate the machine by using the power meter. However, manufacturing the actual machine incurs costs, and it requires time and effort. Further time and effort is required to install the power meter in the machine and to measure the power. Furthermore, each time there is a change in the machine configuration such as changing the mechanical parts, the measurement needs to be performed again in order to accurately calculate the power consumption amount. This requires more time and effort. In order to solve the problem with the requirements of time and effort as described above, the invention to estimate power by simulation has been disclosed in Patent Literature 1.
The invention described in Patent Literature 1 calculates, on the basis of the operation program, the workload of a motor on each axis, the heat generation amount of the motor on each axis, the heat generation amount of an amplifier on each axis, and the output power amount of a control device, thereby calculating the power.